Backyard Ideas

by Dinah Wulf

Giving your backyard a makeover doesn’t have to be rocket science. As long as you take the right steps and implement the right backyard ideas, you can definitely spruce up your backyard and give the face-lift it needs…

1. Start with the Cleaning

Although this seems like an obvious tip, a lot of people tend to ignore it. Cleaning up your backyard is an important step towards making it prettier. So go ahead and grab your rake, get the lawn mower – along with the hedge trimmers to tidy up your backyard. Right from raking the leaves to trimming the bushes – everything should be on your ‘tidy backyard’ to-do list.

2. Begin Planting

Want to add more color and dimension to the area? Then planting trees/shrubs along with adding a flower garden to your backyard is what you should be doing. For example, simply sowing in wildflower seeds will give rise to colorful wildflowers that will beautify your backyard.

See to it that you first scope out the spots that receive a lot of sunlight and the ones that get the shade. Once you’re done with that, you can then choose plants that survive in such conditions. Try and understand their characteristics and growth habits. Also, if you want you can go beyond flowers and add trees to your backyard landscape for added privacy.

3. Add Walkways/Stone Paths

Enhancing the overall flow and improving the landscape doesn’t have to be complicated. You can do it by having a path to the garden and a ‘walkway’ from the deck. Whether you choose to go for brick, stone, gravel or other available edging options, pathways are not only attractive but also beneficial for guiding the “foot traffic” in the appropriate direction.

4. Cover Garden Beds with Mulch

During the summertime, plants need to retain their moisture in the sweltering heat. When you cover your garden beds in mulch, you help the plants in retaining this very moisture. Besides that, mulch happens to give the backyard a clean and an organized look/feel.

After this step, consider doing some budge edging so that the garden beds are better defined. If you look around, you’ll find that there are many styles for you to choose from. If you’ve got a shovel and a level, you can be done building an edge only in a few hours.

All in all, redoing your backyard and designing it to make it look prettier can be a fun and exciting experience as long as you put your creativity into it and don’t treat it as just another tedious task.

Dinah is a craft, home décor, & DIY Blogger for www.diyinspired.com, an eco-friendly site promoting repurposing through reinvention. She has a Master of Arts Degree in Speech Communication from California State University Fullerton. Formerly an educator at CSUF and business owner, she now is a full time writer, Curator for Style Me Pretty Living, 3M DIY Expert, and a member of Martha’s Circle. She has blogged for multiple websites including Fix.com, Earth 911, Home Made Simple, and Sprout Online and has been published in a few magazines and ebooks. Her website, DIY Inspired has been recognized by Mashable, Parenting.com, and Buzzfeed.